[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Geminid Meteors
My expedition to the Mojave Desert to view the Geminids was canceled due
to the flu bug. Skies were clear here on Dec. 12/13 but I was still
running a fever so I decided to save all my efforts for the night of
maximum activity. Thursday was mostly clear except for small strands of
cirrus here and there. I had planned to watch from 10pm to 6am from Jim
Foster's house out past Jamul. To make sure I stayed awake late tonight
I took a good nap from 4 to 8pm. Before leaving I checked the satellite
picture which revealed a fast moving cloud bank headed my way. I figured
it would not arrive until midnight so I decided to still go for it.
I arrived under good but cool conditions as ice soon formed on the
sleeping bag. There must have been a thin layer of cirrus as I was only
getting a limiting magnitude in the 6.1-6.2 range. Meteor activity was
seen driving to to Jim's house and was producing a meteor every 45
seconds or so when I started counting at 10pm. At 1030 it seemed to
slack a bit as there were now longer gaps between meteors. The rates
were still climbing though as the activity became more clustered.
Clustered meaning 5 meteors would be seen one minute and then none for
the next minute or two. I was facing east and there was a constant
volley of Geminid activity between Leo and the Big Dipper. Many of these
were quite bright up to magnitude -5. A couple of the brightest Gems
even had trains. While most of the Geminids were pure white there where
many notable meteors with yellow and orange hues. Yellow is not a good
description for some of these as several were beyond yellow exhibiting a
distinct golden color. Perhaps this is a mix of yellow and orange? I was
also surprised on how many Geminids appeared close to the radiant, much
more than usual it seemed.
The expected clouds appeared on the scene at 1230 but were thin enough
to allow observations to continue. Rates peaked between midnight and one
o'clock. Observations continued until 0200 but the last hour saw
thickening clouds which prevented me from seeing the fainter meteors.
The limiting magnitude fell below +5.0 at 0200 so I suspended recording
and just relaxed. By 0245 it was apparent the conditions would not
improve so I then headed for home. Had I been in the desert I would not
have seen a thing as the entire night was overcast there. It's raining
right now so it appears this is all of the Geminids I will be seeing
this year.
U.T. TIME TeFF F L.M. GEMS ANT NPX SPX SPO TOTAL
0600-0700 1.00 1.00 +6.09 57 0 0 0 2 59
0700-0800 1.00 1.00 +6.07 69 1 0 0 5 75
0800-0900 1.00 1.00 +5.85 77 1 1 0 5 84
0900-1000 1.00 1.00 +5.37 54 3 1 2 3 63
TOTALS 4.00 1.00 +5.84 257 5 2 2 15 281
Magnitudes:
GEM: -5 (2) -4 (3) -3 (6) -2 (7) -1 (29) 0 (51) +1 (56)
+2 (50) +3 (42) +4 (27) +5 (8) +6 (0) AVE: +1.23
ANT: 0 (1) +1 (3) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +1.20
NPX: 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +2.50
SPX: 0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +2.50
SPO: 0 (3) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (4) +4 (5) +5 (2) +6 (0) AVE: +2.93
The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html